A Wealthy Mexican And Latin Americans On The Leaked List of Individuals With Money Offshore [View all]

Source: Forbes

4/08/2013 @ 4:24PM |52 views
A Wealthy Mexican And Latin Americans On The Leaked List of Individuals With Money Offshore

A wealthy Mexican, the children of a Brazilian steel billionaire, two sons of a former Colombian President and a Venezuelan Army general are among the 130,000 individuals in 170 countries whose secret offshore banking records and personal data was released to the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in what amounts to be the largest leak of financial data in history.

The data obtained by the ICIJ shows that Mexican businessman Dionisio Garza Medina, former CEO of Alfa, a conglomerate with interests in oil, food and telecommunications with reported revenue of $15.3 billion, is also the shareholder of Vercors Private Limited in Singapore. Garza Medina is the eldest sibling of a powerful family in Monterrey who sponsored Father Marcial Maciel, the Mexican founder of the Legion of Christ, a Catholic group marred by allegations of sexually abusing children, who died in 2008. A spokesman for Alfa, of which Garza Medina was CEO until 2010, declined to answer questions saying this is a “private matter of Mr. Garza not related to Alfa.” The offshore company was set up in 2005 while Garza Medina was still running Alfa.

In Brazil, the ICIJ found that Clarice, Leo and Fabio Steinbruch, members of one of the country’s richest families, are shareholders and directors of Peak Management Inc., incorporated in the British Virgin Islands in 2007. The Steinbruchs own large steel and textile companies and a bank. With a net worth estimated at $1.1 billion, Dorothea Steinbruch –mother of Clarice, Leo and Fabio –appeared on Forbes 2013 billionaire list. Leo Steinbruch told ICIJ that “Peak Management exists, is active, it’s been declared on its owners’ tax forms and has been duly disclosed to the Brazilian Central Bank as a Brazilian investment abroad.”

In Colombia, Tomas and Jeronimo Alberto Uribe Moreno, sons of former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, are shareholders of Asia America Investment Corporation, set in the British Virgin Islands in 2008, ICIJ data shows. During their father’s controversial eight years in office they were accused of influence-peddling in two high-profile scandals, including in a case in which they acquired land in an area whose value skyrocketed after authorities granted it tax-free status. Alvaro Uribe, whose government was accused of massive violations of human rights and complicity with paramilitary groups, publicly defended his sons’ involvement in offshore business, saying that Tomas and Jeronimo are entrepreneurs and “have participated in business dealings since they were children,” and that “they are not tax evaders.”